Has Sexually Assaulting Bridesmaids Become A Culture In Chinese Weddings?

If this is true, it is extremely disturbing and not on. Global Voices which is a volunteer based community of writers, analysts and online experts specialising in citizen media reporting states that there is a trend of groomsmen in China sexually assaulting bridesmaids. This is extremely alarming and poses the question about how deep misogyny runs in communities of men everywhere. To watch the viral video, please click here to check it out.

Global voices continues:

However, in recent years, that custom has been twisted in an alarming way in mainland China to include groomsmen sexually assaulting bridesmaids.

The trend is in the spotlight thanks to two recent cases. The first is a viral video (content is disturbing) circulating on Chinese social media. The video shows a bridesmaid being restrained and sexually assaulted by two men in a vehicle in Xi’an city. The woman screams and struggles while the two men forcibly take off her underwear, laugh and command her to “make sex noises”.

The video was uploaded to social media on June 8 and went viral. Two days later on June 10, Xi’an police took a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old into custody; the victim, however, said she did not want to pursue the case against them.

Very often, the bridesmaids refrain from reporting the assault to the police as they don’t want to “taint” their best friend’s marriage with a criminal investigation. Moreover, it’s likely the groomsmen or wedding guests would defend the assault claiming that it was part of the Chinese custom to “naohun” (闹婚) — which literally means “to make turbulence at a wedding”.

I so hope that these are isolated cases, but am not surprised if the tradition of “bridal” and “groomsmen” wedding games are now being used as an excuse to sexually assault women. Don’t get me wrong sexual assault happens to women of all colours, by men of all colours. But the fact that there are a few cases of this happening in China, with injuries and deaths, demonstrates what a serious problem this will and/or can become if not contained/changed. Chinese netizens are mixed in how they feel about this. Check these translated comments out.

“Although seual violence happens in the west, Asian men commit the most rapists and sexual assaults. They need to be deported and China needs the enlightenment of western culture which is not sexist.” -Auntie Anna Lu